“It will be a tribute to football, not a space for self promotion,” said David Xirau, head of MediaPro.

“In China, football is growing at an exponential rate, encouraged by the authorities.

“This is a tribute to football with Leo’s trademark. We are working towards creating other Messi experiences in other places.

“We are hoping for updates on that soon.

“The idea is for visitors to spend the whole day here. The project started as a museum but, as time went on, after seeing our partner and the Nanjing authorities’ ambition, we saw that it needed to be bigger.”

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Lionel Messi hopes the theme park will inspire more people to get involved in football

Messi was involved in the development of the project and hopes that it will encourage people to get involved with the sport.

“I hope to provide (the visitors with an) experience they’ve never had before and to inspire them to pick up the sport early on,” he said.